Apple on Wednesday afternoon issued a number of updates, addressing high processor usage and other glitches in its 27-inch iMac, as well as various security updates for Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard and Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard.

27-inch iMac updates

Two updates released Wednesday address issues with the 27-inch big screen iMac, released in October 2009.

"27-inch iMac EFI FW Update 1.0" is recommended for all systems with quad-core Intel Core i5 and Core i7 processors. The update resolves an issue that caused high processor utilization when playing audio through the headphone output, and fixes a problem that prevented the display backlight from turning on after powering on the iMac.

The 2.1MB update is available for download from Apple. It requires Mac OS X 10.6.3 or later.

Also Wednesday, Apple issued Security Update 2010-003 for Snow Leopard (6.50MB), Leopard Client (218.6MB), and Leopard Server (379.5MB). The update addresses a vulnerability related to viewing or downloading a document containing a maliciously crafted embedded font. Discovery of the exploit is credited to researcher Charlie Miller, who worked with TippingPoint's Zero Day Initiative and reported the issue to Apple.

Hey Steve Jobs... I just went through 4 of your new Chinese iMac's in 2 days. All of them garbage and broken in some way.

My wife's first experience buying a Mac is having a pissed off husband spending over 8 hours in traffic running your shoddy Chinese crap back and forth. Is this the Apple experience you were after?

This is your 3rd press release telling us your "glitches" are fixed. (And if you think that DOA and broken components are 'glitches'... my god man... )

Where is your quality control? Seriously... where is it?
It's non existent is where it is.

All your focus on iPad's while your desktop lines go into the crapper.

My first two apple machines (an i7 iMac and MacBook Air) were perfect right out of the box. Sorry to hear you've had some really bad luck on that. No one ever wants to have problems right out of the box and deal with the hassles of exchanging it. But Apple does back up their products with a great warranty. Perhaps that entire palette had a rough ride in transit. That's just not right. Perhaps try a different store? That sucks.

What was the final outcome? Is everything all right now? For what it's worth, when the dust settles and all is well, buy a lottery ticket. Good luck!

Hey Steve Jobs... I just went through 4 of your new Chinese iMac's in 2 days. All of them garbage and broken in some way.

sorry you have a bad time. however you were part of a small percent of folks that had issues with the 27 inch imac so to rant that they have crap QC isn't really correct.

As for the ipad dig, the world is going mobile so yes they are going to spend some time on that side of things, get used it. Doesn't mean they don't care. The fact they are constantly issuing updates rather than holding them all for updates every six months or such in a huge service pack is a sign of that.

Perhaps the real answer is that Macs are not for everyone and you are one of them. After all you yourself said (in one of your many anti Mac rants) that at least the imac is 'dead to me' so it really won't be a big issue for you

And still no fix for wireless SMB copying that says it copied X amount of files and then when done, it deletes a random number of files. 10.6.3 release notes said it fixed it, but I guess not. Not even the supplemental .3 update worked. I do appreciate the security updates however.

Hey Steve Jobs... I just went through 4 of your new Chinese iMac's in 2 days. All of them garbage and broken in some way.

My wife's first experience buying a Mac is having a pissed off husband spending over 8 hours in traffic running your shoddy Chinese crap back and forth. Is this the Apple experience you were after?

This is your 3rd press release telling us your "glitches" are fixed. (And if you think that DOA and broken components are 'glitches'... my god man... )

Where is your quality control? Seriously... where is it?
It's non existent is where it is.

All your focus on iPad's while your desktop lines go into the crapper.

FWIW, I went through 3 MacBook Pros in a year (back in 2007). One with a half dead screen (cable pinched), one who's lid was severely warped (they didn't take it back until they found an internal screw missing), and the last one I had had a graphics chip burn up due to over heating. The three were from three seperate stores, different times of the year.
However, I have a Powerbook 3400c that still works. Also, a Quadra 840av that works too circa 1993. Back then, Apple's quality was much higher than now.

My suggestion, take your money else where. I built a really nice desktop, and bought a netbook for the road with some cash left over from my MBP purchace. I've NEVER regretted my decision.

Trust me, you DEFINITELY aren't the only one.

There are plenty of people who don't have a single issue with their Macs, and power too them.

I'm running both the update and downloaded the two manual patches. The odd thing is that the automatic update already lists the EFI update. It does not list the SMC update, so I guess that one is optional.

I haven't had any display issues, but I guess I'll go ahead and install it. Anyone else have any feedback on these updates yet?

I'm running both the update and downloaded the two manual patches. The odd thing is that the automatic update already lists the EFI update. It does not list the SMC update, so I guess that one is optional.

I haven't had any display issues, but I guess I'll go ahead and install it. Anyone else have any feedback on these updates yet?

Ok, I installed the security updates, the EFI update, and the SMC update. Nothing weird to report one way or the other. I had on display or power problems, so I can't speak to whether or not this fixes anything though

Regarding the 27" iMacs: I'm glad that I didn't pull the trigger! I was sorely tempted to do so before the holidays, but the shipping delays deterred me. I've been dying for a quad-core, but my "Early 2008" iMac still has enough horsepower for me -- really, it does, I just have to convince myself sometimes (i.e., stop dreaming & face reality).

I've been fortunate: all of my Macs (not to mention the old Apple IIgs ) have had long, healthy careers. Sure, the occasional hard-drive has died (including the original WD model from this iMac, but with all the heat and abuse to which I've subjected it, no surprise!), and I've had a few "user-created" issues (including not properly seating a processor upgrade in an old beige G3, which this dummy easily fixed once educated). But my experience in the Mac realm has been overwhelmingly positive.

As a general rule, I avoid "first editions." Clearly, this new top-of-the-line iMac wasn't quite ready for primetime when it came out of the oven.

And enough horror stories (or even not-so-horrible-but-still-awfully-woeful tales) have been mentioned here and elsewhere to cool any excitement I may have developed. (I feel sorry for the folks who wander in blindly, without waiting a little while and seeing how the field develops.) All releases experience their share of issues, but the 27" iMacs have had an especially-clear profile of problems.

(And don't forget those 2009 Mac Pros and their audio issues, solved not too long ago.)

Here's looking at the next iMac revision: may it be much more problem-free!

We are taking this 4th one back. Went to a different location today to look at one they just got in, made them open it in store... sloppy hinge problem. Thats 5. I've been dealing with London Drugs because they have a 14 day return policy.

Did Ives even take into account the weight of the 27"? Sloppy industrial design or cheap parts? Thats a pretty big thing to cheap out on. That is a function that should NEVER be a problem.

Wife is going to keep using my 17" 1ghz G4 laptop for now because it's more reliable then any new iMac i've come across. How's that for progress

I'm not trolling. But if any of you had to spend over an hour fighting traffic, there, back, there, back, there, back, there, back... and now you have to go there again and back 1 more time... I'm sure every one of you would be at my level of frustration.

Apple also said they fixed the glitches in February, then again in March, and now again in April.

New 27" iMac's =

One note of interest when I was talking to the Apple Tech. The custom ordered Mac's are put together in the USA... all the rest come from China.

Hey Steve Jobs... I just went through 4 of your new Chinese iMac's in 2 days. All of them garbage and broken in some way.

My wife's first experience buying a Mac is having a pissed off husband spending over 8 hours in traffic running your shoddy Chinese crap back and forth. Is this the Apple experience you were after?

This is your 3rd press release telling us your "glitches" are fixed. (And if you think that DOA and broken components are 'glitches'... my god man... )

Where is your quality control? Seriously... where is it?
It's non existent is where it is.

All your focus on iPad's while your desktop lines go into the crapper.

I hope you're actually communicating these complaints to Apple, because no one here is authorized to accept returns or repair your malfunctioning computers... not that we don't all enjoy your endless stream of rants.

We are taking this 4th one back. Went to a different location today to look at one they just got in, made them open it in store... sloppy hinge problem. Thats 5. I've been dealing with London Drugs because they have a 14 day return policy.

Did Ives even take into account the weight of the 27"? Sloppy industrial design or cheap parts? Thats a pretty big thing to cheap out on. That is a function that should NEVER be a problem.

Wife is going to keep using my 17" 1ghz G4 laptop for now because it's more reliable then any new iMac i've come across. How's that for progress

I'm not trolling. But if any of you had to spend over an hour fighting traffic, there, back, there, back, there, back, there, back... and now you have to go there again and back 1 more time... I'm sure every one of you would be at my level of frustration.

Apple also said they fixed the glitches in February, then again in March, and now again in April.

New 27" iMac's =

One note of interest when I was talking to the Apple Tech. The custom ordered Mac's are put together in the USA... all the rest come from China.

Your dilemma is exactly why I would first consider a refurbished model. It has had an extra level of scrutiny that a brand new one dosen't receive. I wish you luck and hope that your issues are resolved very soon.

I'm not trolling. But if any of you had to spend over an hour fighting traffic, there, back, there, back, there, back, there, back... and now you have to go there again and back 1 more time... I'm sure every one of you would be at my level of frustration.

If you've had multiple problems with Macs, that certainly sucks and can be frustrating, but that doesn't mean that all or most or even a greater percentage of Macs are having problems than when you bought your 17" 1GHz PB; it's anecdotal evidence that you are having multiple problems. So when you repeat a harangue telling people not to buy Macs that comes across as trolling.

Quote:

One note of interest when I was talking to the Apple Tech. The custom ordered Mac's are put together in the USA... all the rest come from China.

I'm pretty sure I've seen BTO Macs get shipped straight from China so I don't know if that information is correct. Even if it was, I wouldn't put any stock into an American constructed CE being better than the China constructed version since nearly every component is created in China and it makes no financial sense to ship non-BTO Macs DOA to customers without QC checks.

Based on my anecdotal experience with Apple and the problems you are having I'd weigh in the reseller pushing bad product that they got at a lower price. Perhaps you should have called Apple and had them ship you a new iMac instead.

I also don't recall reading about any hinge problem, and your 5 iMac issues is well beyond the norm so suggesting that the 27" iMacs are fatally flawed when there are plenty of reports of happy customers with no issues indicates that you either very unlucky or we are not considering all values of this equation.

Dick Applebaum on whether the iPad is a personal computer: "BTW, I am posting this from my iPad pc while sitting on the throne... personal enough for you?"

We are taking this 4th one back. Went to a different location today to look at one they just got in, made them open it in store... sloppy hinge problem. Thats 5. I've been dealing with London Drugs because they have a 14 day return policy.

Did Ives even take into account the weight of the 27"? Sloppy industrial design or cheap parts? Thats a pretty big thing to cheap out on. That is a function that should NEVER be a problem.

Wife is going to keep using my 17" 1ghz G4 laptop for now because it's more reliable then any new iMac i've come across. How's that for progress

I'm not trolling. But if any of you had to spend over an hour fighting traffic, there, back, there, back, there, back, there, back... and now you have to go there again and back 1 more time... I'm sure every one of you would be at my level of frustration.

Apple also said they fixed the glitches in February, then again in March, and now again in April.

New 27" iMac's =

There is something definitely fishy going on with your problems. Is this an Apple store or is it a reseller? Either the entire batch that got shipped to the UK stores somehow took a beating during transit or that store (if reseller) is trying to pawn off something else. Your situation is totally not typical. You should contact Apple so they know about your case. I'd be pissed too.

Quote:

Originally Posted by rain

One note of interest when I was talking to the Apple Tech. The custom ordered Mac's are put together in the USA... all the rest come from China.

Maybe the UK is different but when I ordered my i7 iMac, it did come from China as I tracked the shipment from beginning to end. It's worked flawlessly since day on. This is my first personal iMac and I will not go back to a regular PC again. So sorry for your issues. Good luck.

There is something definitely fishy going on with your problems. Is this an Apple store or is it a reseller? Either the entire batch that got shipped to the UK stores somehow took a beating during transit or that store (if reseller) is trying to pawn off something else.

His location states Vancouver and googling the store shows London Drugs is a Canadian store. Looks like a Target or Walmart type store.

Dick Applebaum on whether the iPad is a personal computer: "BTW, I am posting this from my iPad pc while sitting on the throne... personal enough for you?"

And all this time I thought updates and patches and security problems were Windows problems. I guess its a myth that Apple products don't have these problems is not true. I will go back to my Commodore 128.

I purchased a refurbished Quad Core 27" iMac last month direct from Apple and is the best Mac I have used yet. No issues whatsoever. Saved $350 purchasing refurbished to boot.

Whats interesting is that I have a 23" cinema display connected to a core 2 duo Mac Mini. The Mac Mini + cinema display (on full brightness) uses approximately same energy/watts as the 27" iMac on half brightness (which looks to me to give about same brightness as 23").

I'm not trolling. But if any of you had to spend over an hour fighting traffic, there, back, there, back, there, back, there, back... and now you have to go there again and back 1 more time... I'm sure every one of you would be at my level of frustration.

...

One note of interest when I was talking to the Apple Tech. The custom ordered Mac's are put together in the USA... all the rest come from China.

Trolling or not, but I'm deeply offended by your repeated degrading words about China. If you are not happy about Macs then go buy yourself a Dell, or maybe even a Sony. Chances are those will be manufactured in China too.

Or maybe you should build your own 27" all-in-one computer, but guess what, most of the components were made in the Asia area as well. I guess you should divert your anger into making you own components, you will get further than trolling here on Mac forums.

His location states Vancouver and googling the store shows London Drugs is a Canadian store. Looks like a Target or Walmart type store.

They are the last place I'd buy a computer of any kind from... I bet every iMac returned there was boxed up to be sold to somebody else instead of returned to Apple (shipping costs $$); in fact you are probably going through other people's rejects. I know that's how they handled a camera I returned there years ago...

The problems on the iMac I definitely not a small percentage. I had 3 iMac 27" all had a yellow tinge, eventually gave up and got a refund. If the problem was small what are the odds of getting 3 in a row bad and I am not alone, forum threads about the issue are up in the thousands. People who are saying they I have received a perfect screen I would almost guarantee if they did the test they would find some yellow tinge.

I am so disappointed I need a desktop and currently I have to just wait and see what the next update brings.

I'm not trolling. But if any of you had to spend over an hour fighting traffic, there, back, there, back, there, back, there, back... and now you have to go there again and back 1 more time... I'm sure every one of you would be at my level of frustration.

Apple also said they fixed the glitches in February, then again in March, and now again in April.

New 27" iMac's =

One note of interest when I was talking to the Apple Tech. The custom ordered Mac's are put together in the USA... all the rest come from China.

I ordered a custom built 2 TB core i5 iMac on Black Friday. I watched its itinerary from Shanghai, China up to my door last December:

Thankfully, I have no problem to report. But I do understand your frustration and would share it if I had gone through the same ordeal. But everything is O.K. Better luck in the future. It's my belief that the whole shipment of your first 4 iMacs was dropped during transportation, hence the DOA you report. Try the web AppleStore as I did. Better luck next time.

Having read stories on this site for a few months, and seen the criticism of Rain's post I had to join and post a reply.

In my opinion he is largely correct about the shocking build quality of 27 inch iMacs coming out of China.

I have had 3 iMac 27s all of them with different problems. The latest one was a custom i7 sent to me by Apple Exec Relations after emailing Steve Jobs out of desperation.

I have just received my brand new week 13 27 inch i7, and it again has multiple issues: 1) Yellow tinted screen; 2) grey band running across the bottom of the screen; 3) DVD drive scratches disks beyond point of repair; 4) Terrible backlight bleed from bottom right hand corner of the screen; 5) Hard drive makes many clicking noises (it's a Seagate).

What is laughable is that as the i7 was an advanced replacement I was able to compare the iMacs side by side. The two screens were so different in native colour consistency it is a joke. One is very blue but with a yellow stripe down the middle, the other is yellow all across the bottom but with a much better overall neutral grey. But they are so DIFFERENT it could be a different screen entirely I wish you could see at first hand because it is so obvious! If each screen is so different it really begs the question how this can be the ultimate display and it is certainly useless for professional photography uses.

This is really not acceptable considering the problems are supposed to have been fixed.

I would urge anyone not to order a new 27 inch iMac if you are a perfectionist and want everything to be just so. If you can live with poor colour consistency and potentially other niggles, then go ahead.

After just one replacement Apple Exec Relations are not prepared to send me another computer, they are only offering a refund. I think this speaks volumes about the quality control as they clearly know that most of the new iMacs rolling off the production line are going to suffer these issues. Your average consumer may not notice their screen is duff but anyone into photography or video will.

I KNOW that this issue exists and is not just exaggeration as I visited the Apple Bristol store last night and they had a week 10 i7 on display which i carefully scrutised and tested, and it DID NOT have the problems described. (It had a faint grey band again but the yellow was virtually non-existant - I say virtually because under store lighting it is very hard to tell 100% but it looked much much better than my i7).

This is a REAL problem folks and I say this as an Apple lover who has practically all other products e.g. iphone, Macbook etc etc.

Well I got a bad iMac....it kept scratching all the discs but i just went to the apple store (day after launch in newcastle) and they fixed it. To be honest, whatever you buy will have had problems at some stage, but apple are THE best for sorting them out soon. So moan all you want, but you're still getting a better experience than buying an ordinary desktop (or building one yourself)

I had to reply too, I'm sorry if this post might be a bit off topic but replying to people above with quality control, they are very right. I know, peoples comments here aren't going to make a difference but some people defending Apple and saying they are in the minority I feel are wrong. Over the years, I've had to replace quite a few parts in my computers, not a problem, I kind of enjoy that kind of thing, where most of the parts were damaged because of flex cable getting trapped and the computer overheating too.

But my biggest problem is Apples quality over their displays, I've been unlucky to have problems with all of my display that I've had with my computers, luckily I don't depend on the precision of their output but have found I am not the only one, problems with colour and brightness banding across the screens, which in the computer models I've had are basically a problem in all of them, not just select computers, so returning them would make no difference. Considering the quality and the amount of money you pay for them, you would expect quality control to be an important thing with their displays.

I'm not a troll and sorry for the off topic, I love my Apple computers and wouldn't want anything else, I'm just trying to justify that some people aren't a troll for having frustrations with some Apple products because some of them, you just can't fix by returning, when the quality of some components are just bad in all of them.

We are taking this 4th one back. Went to a different location today to look at one they just got in, made them open it in store... sloppy hinge problem. Thats 5. I've been dealing with London Drugs because they have a 14 day return policy.

Opening it in the store makes sense. I would have done that starting on number 3.

They are the last place I'd buy a computer of any kind from... I bet every iMac returned there was boxed up to be sold to somebody else instead of returned to Apple (shipping costs $$); in fact you are probably going through other people's rejects. I know that's how they handled a camera I returned there years ago...

If they are an Authorized Reseller, you could blame Apple's monitoring of the retailler.

Are they in fact Authorized? If so, I'd talk to someone a Apple about the situation.

Well I got a bad iMac....it kept scratching all the discs but i just went to the apple store (day after launch in newcastle) and they fixed it. To be honest, whatever you buy will have had problems at some stage, but apple are THE best for sorting them out soon. So moan all you want, but you're still getting a better experience than buying an ordinary desktop (or building one yourself)

I had a problem with my new Dell laptop. Dell sent somebody to my house to fix it.

Shlepping a huge desktop to a mall to be fixed strikes me as a less "Better experience" compared to having free on-site service.

Is on-site service available for Macs? At a higher price? If so, I'd insist that they come on-site to fix an out-of-the-box problem.